Using the Whole Buffalo: Coordinating subsystems of the DUNE Far Detector prototype for a measurement of light attenuation in liquid argon

The Department of Physics welcomes Professor Dr. Bryan Ramson to present their virtual colloquia.

Dr. Bryan Ramson is a postdoctoral researcher in the Fermilab Neutrino Division. He is a member of two large experimental collaborations at the cutting-edge of long-baseline neutrino physics: the currently operational NOvA experiment and the upcoming Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). His Alma-Mater is Howard University where he was a visiting scholar at the National Aeronautic and Space Administration. He earned his doctorate in Applied Physics on studies of nuclear matter at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, working at Fermilab as a visiting scholar on the E906/SeaQuest particle physics experiment. His current research interests involve the study of neutrino-nuclei interactions and the testing of new light sensing hardware to be included in DUNE.

Abstract: The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a future accelerator-based multi-detector neutrino experiment currently in development by an international collaboration of scientists and to be hosted simultaneously at Fermilab and the Sanford Underground Research Facility. Upon activation, DUNE will investigate a number of fundamental questions about our universe using neutrinos and their ability oscillate in flavor over long baselines, including explanations of the matter/anti-matter asymmetry. The DUNE Far Detector will also be sensitive to the abundance of neutrino signals from supernova bursts and the very faint signals of proton-decay. In the Fall of 2018, the first in a pair of full-scale prototypes of the DUNE-Far Detector known as ProtoDUNE-Single Phase was activated. The prototype detector was configured to observe beam particles from the proton injector to the LHC, however cosmic-ray events are also present and can provide important information about the active volume. This talk will discuss the commissioning and performance of the prototype detector, the capture and reconstruction of cosmic-ray muons, and a novel analysis developed to measure the Rayleigh scattering length, a component of attenuation for scintillated light in liquid argon.